The Russians Won Record Number of Biathlon Medals
For Russia, the IBU World Championships Biathlon 2008 that ended in Sweden Ostersund yesterday could be regarded as a resounding success. The team won three gold, three silver and five bronze medals.
Russia's team of Ivan Tcherezov, Nikolay Kruglov, Dmitri Yaroshenko and Maxim Tchoudov showed fantastic shooting and high speed in the men's 4 x 7.5 km relay event at the Biathlon World Championships in Ostersund February 16, 2008 and secured the third gold medal for the country. The second and the fourth places went to Norway and Germany.
The Russians yielded to Germany with gold medals counted in Ostersund and followed Norway in number of silver medals. But the team won 11 medals overall, while Norway finished with nine medals and Germany had eight.
What’s more, sometimes, even the fourth place is worth a lot. Russian women manifested unbeatable spirit in the thrilling relay competition February 17, 2008. The winning chance disappeared when Albina Akhatova had a problem with her rifle, missed three shots and finished with the 14th result. Tatiana Moiseeva with her single miss and the third racing time brought the team to the ninth position.
The real hero was Ekaterina Iourieva, who coped with the pressure and general exhaustion after the Saturday race of 15 kilometers, missed two shots but managed to finish the fourth on the fastest skiing. Iourieva outran Olga Kudryashova of Belarus to inspire the bronze hopes in Russians but Sandrine Bailly’s of France crept up through the filed to sprint away to the winning place.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 18, 2008
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